TMZ Sports has managed to obtain a voicemail that seems to implicate Jerry West and the Clippers front office really badly.
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The Lakers, Raptors and Clippers were the 3 front offices that Kawhi gave meetings to during last summer. All 3 franchises seemed to have good reason to expect Kawhi to sign with them. The Lakers offered the best guarantee of success, the Raptors had the sentiment going for them while the Clippers presented an intriguing situation.
On the voicemail, a voice, presumably that of West, can be heard speaking about the Kawhi deal. The speaker acknowledged the receiver’s intent in helping them sign the Klaw.
The voicemail that implicates Jerry West severely
Various outlets have shared TMZ Sport’s original audio on social media. The transcript of the audio reads roughly as follows:
“I really wanna thank you a lot for trying to help. I heard this morning that everyone over in the Lakers camp thinks they’re going to get him. I just find it hard to believe that he would wanna go to that s**tshow, where he would not even get his name in the paper. And he wouldn’t be the face of the franchise, that’s for sure.”
“He might be the best player on the team, but, hope things are well. And again, I really really appreciate everything you’ve done. I do wanna get together with you privately, and would love to take you to dinner.”
The Jerry West “voicemail”
Sounds like him, yes? pic.twitter.com/cst7cyok4M
— John Ledesma (@JohnnyNBA) December 18, 2020
Thankfully for Jerry, there is no talk of payment or kickbacks for the recipient of this voicemail. There is definitely the possibility that this was just an innocent voicemail intended for a well-wisher of Kawhi.